The present invention relates to an airbag for protecting an occupant in collision of a motor vehicle or the like, and to an airbag apparatus therefore, and specifically to an airbag provided with a left half airbag and a right half airbag respectively inflating at a left side and right side in front of the occupant, and an airbag apparatus including the airbag. Further, the present invention relates to a motor vehicle provided with the airbag apparatus.
As an airbag for protecting an occupant in collision of a motor vehicle or the like, an airbag described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-244005 (incorporated by reference herein) is known as a related art of an airbag constructed to have a left half airbag and a right half airbag, respectively inflated at a left side and right side in front of the occupant, and to be inflated by a common inflator.
The airbag described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-244005 is an airbag inflated in a direction where a tip end side of the airbag recedes from a base end side by blowing-out gas of the inflator disposed at the base end side, and is an airbag provided with a left half airbag inflating at a left side in front of the occupant, and a right half airbag inflating at a right side in front of the occupant. The airbag is formed of an inside panel extending from a tip end of the right half airbag up to a tip end of the left half airbag, while passing through each of facing faces of the airbag of both the right half and left half, a right outside panel constituting an outer surface of the right half airbag, a left outside panel constituting an outer surface of the left half airbag, and a base end side panel constituting a base end side of the airbag. In the airbag described above, a base end chamber surrounded by the base end side panel is formed, and the gas of the aforementioned inflator is supplied into the left half airbag and the right half airbag via the base end chamber.
In the airbag described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-244005, in a case that the inflator is activated, the base end chamber at the base end side is inflated in advance, and then the left half airbag and the right half airbag are inflated. The base end chamber at the base end side, which is inflated in advance, is brought into contact with a motor vehicle member such as an instrumental panel or the like, and a posture thereof becomes stable. Therefore, postures of the left half airbag and the right half airbag become stable not only at a time on completion of an inflating operation but also in a halfway of the inflation.
Further, the gas is supplied from the base end chamber to the respective left side and right side airbags, even when the inflator is that of a type where a larger amount of the gas is blown out toward either one of the left side and right side compared to the other side, the gas is approximately uniformly supplied to the left half airbag and the right half airbag, and the same are brought to be approximately uniformly inflated.
Since an airbag described in the aforementioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-244005 is formed of a total of four panels of an inside panel, respective left and right outside panels, and a base end side panel, there are many stitching portions of each of the panels and therefore the stitching work is troublesome.
Accordingly, an airbag, an airbag apparatus and a motor vehicle provided with the airbag apparatus is needed that reduces the amount of stitching work needed to form a multiple panel airbag.